For those of us who swore to ourselves as children that we would not treat each other the way we had been exposed to I say well done. But swearing to ourselves not to continue harm does not make us immune from doing it anyway. It is okay to be sensitive to harm when we know better. It is a sign of a conscience that is well formed. Somehow many of us have forgotten the lessons we learned at a young age and now try to justify our behavior by either ignoring it or laying it at the feet of doing what needs to be done to keep what we have and or to gain more. It does all boil back down to how principled a life we want to live. There should be no illusion about this. We have to examine our decisions and at what cost we will allow our decisions to violate our principles. Ugliness is still ugliness and for me or anyone to do a cost benefit analysis on just how ugly we are willing to be toward others for our own gain is still a violation of the oath we took so many long years ago. I have fallen short on my principles but I have rebounded to not compromising any longer on the values I want in my life. I know first hand just how cheap I have sold my soul for some shiny object or hoped for relationship. The disgust I felt for my own life was my prize and for that I know that nothing is worth being less than the human I most admiringly want to be. Nothing! So it is the high road for me which means that I will not have great ambition to desire or to be self gratified. I know now that existing with an awe and humility is a wise and peaceful life. I will still gather and consume but not at the expense of those around me who have to struggle mightily just to maintain the barest of existences.
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